Charity in Action
IMCS Kenya
By Njenga Kuria
National Coordinator IMCS Kenya
The
International Movement of Catholic Students, Kenyan
chapter (IMCS-K), has a project called ‘Adopt a Child’, by which
University students in different chapters would adopt a child and
support it both financially and psychologically. In their neighboring
primary schools there are many children who are in need of financial
as well as psychological support.
Most of the parents of these children are divorcees or single parents
or dead leaving these children with a lot of craving for attention and
need of support and it’s with the spirit of IMCS, ‘preferential option
for the poor’ that the student movement took the initiative of adopting a child. This program was started in 2005 and up to now, the
movement has 22 beneficiaries. The first beneficiary of the program
is a boy called Erick who has been adopted by Equity Foundation in
Equity bank due to his good academic performance. He is currently
pursuing his studies at Njiiris Boys, which is a Provincial school
These kids are adopted while they are still in primary school, preferably from class one to class four. Their needs are assessed and if they
qualify then the University students take the responsibility of ensuring that the pupil is provided with the basics (school uniforms and
stationery). They also provide mentorship. The university students
are tasked in assessing the performance and the discipline of the
pupils. On completion of primary school, the movement continues to
support the student until the completion of secondary school.
A Classical example in Kikuyu Campus: The student movement in
Kikuyu campus assists two little girls at Thogoto primary school:
Sylvia Njeri and Faith Nyambura. They come from a single mother
family who works as a cook in the same school. But the income is
not sufficient to cater for the needs of a family of six. The members
of the movement have been helping the children acquire school uniform and some personal effects. Apart from providing material items
they were offered guidance and mentorship.
Financially the program is supported through he following activities
Personal contributions – students contribute a minimum of 1 dollar towards this program every semester and give proformas to other